Burial-casket.



No. 803,843. PATENTED NOV. 7, 1905. G. E. MYERS. BURIAL GASKET.

APPLICATION IILED MAB..13, 1905.

m P E"; 3 i E; E p. 55 E g- 7 n1") I; ii" i x i UNITED STATES CHARLES E. MYERS, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

BU RlAL-CASKET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 7, 1905.

Application filed March 13, 1905. erial No. 249,720.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. MYERS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne, State of Michi gan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Burial-Caskets; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification:

This invention relates to burial-caskets; and it consists in the peculiar manner of dividing the front side of the casket and hinging together the divided parts in such a manner as to enable the major hinged portion of the side to hang straight down adjacent the base of the casket, as hereinafter more fully set forth, and pointed out particularly in the claims.

The object of the invention is to produce a drop-side or couch casket, wherein the arrangement: is such as to enable the hinged portion of the side which carries the handle to drop straight downwardlyclose to the remaining or fixed portion of the side and yet allow for the presence of a handle between said hinged portion of the side and the body of the casket without deflecting said hinged portion outwardly, as is common in the art, thereby enabling a nearer approach to the casket when the side is dropped to produce the couch effect.

'lhe above object is attained by the construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a central transverse section through a casket embodying my invention, the manner of dropping the side being illustrated by the position of the parts shown in dotted lines. Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section in detail through a portion of the drop side and the hinge member uniting the divided parts, showing by solid lines the position of said parts when the side is dropped or folded outwardly, the dotted lines indicating the normal position. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view of one of the hinge members. Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view in front eleva tion.

Referring to the characters of reference, 1 designates the body of the casket; 2, the top thereof, to which the riser-molding 3 is atthe body in any suitable manner.

To produce a drop or side which will give the desired couch effect and which will allow the hinged upper portion of the side to hang straight downwardly close to the body of the casket, the front side of the casket is divided longitudinally on the horizontallyparallel lines 4 and 5, forming a narrow strip 6, which is separated from the upper major portion 7 of the side as well as from the lower fixed portion 8. In order to hinge the strip 6 to the upper portion 7 of the side and at the same time to attach said joined parts by means of a hinge to the lower fixed portion 8, there is employed a three-part hinge member comprising the parts 9, 10, and 11, of which the parts 9 and 11 are the end portions and the part 10 the interposed central portion joined to the end portions by the knuckle-joints 12 and 13. These joints are so formed that when the parts of the hinge are made to stand at right angles to each other the shoulders 14 of one part will strike the faces 15 of the other part and stop said parts so as to describe a rectangularfigure, as shown in Fig. 2. There are two or more of these hinges employed, the end part 9 of each hinge being secured to the stationary portion 8 of the side, the middle part 10 to the strip 6, and the end part 11 to the hinged portion7 of the side, whereby the divided portions of the side of the casket are jointedly united in a manner to cause them to assume the position shown in Fig. 2 when the side of the casket is dro ped or folded outwardly.

'l lie handles 16 are attached to the sides of the casket, those on the front side being secured to the hinged upper portion 7. it is designed that the width of the strip 6 shall be equal to or slightly in excess of the transverse diameter of the handles, so as to allow tached, said top being hinged or secured to the handles to lie between the face of the hinged portion of the side and the face of the fixed portion when the side is dropped, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, whereby the hinged portion 7 is allowed to hang in a perfectly vertical position adjacent and parallel to the fixed portion of the side of the casket, whereas with the inserted hinged strip 6 not employed and the section 7 hinged directly to the remaining fixed portion of the side in attempting to fold the portion? downwardly the handles would strike the side of the casket and cause said portion 7 to project outwardly and downwardly at an angle, creating an un sightly appearance and preventing a near approach to the side of the casket.

When the hinged portions of the side are folded outwardly, the three-part stop-hinge will arrest said parts, so as to cause the strip 6 to project horizontally and the portion 7 to depend vertically therefrom without the use of any abutments or projecting shoulders of any character upon the side of the casket, making a neat, strong, and perfectarrangement and at the same time affording space between the depending portion 7 of the side and the body of the casket for the handles 16.

Having thus fully set forth my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A casket having its front side divided longitudinally into a relatively narrow portion and a relatively wide portion, there being a remaining fixed portion of said side extending some distance above the base, a hinged member joining said wide and narrow portions of the side to said fixed remaining portion, and stops to support the narrow portion of the side in a horizontal plane and the wide portion in a vertical plane parallel with and adjacent to the face of the casket.

2. A casket having its side divided longij tudinally into a relatively narrow and a rela 1 tively wide section, a hinge member having stop-shoulders thereon joining said sections and uniting them to the fixed portion of the side, the stop-shoulders of the hinge member being adapted to arrest the narrow section in a horizontal positon, and the wide section in a depending vertical position parallel with the face of the casket.

3. A casket having its front side divided longitudinally into a relatively narrow portion and a relatively wide portion, there being a remaining fixed portion of said side extending some distance above the base, a hinge member joining said wide and narrow portions of the side to said fixed remaining portion having stop-shoulders thereon to sup port the narrow portion in a horizontal plane and the wide portion in a vertical plane parallel with and adjacent to the face of the casket, and the handles secured to said relatively wide portion and adapted to lie in the space between the face thereof and the face of the fixed portion of the side.

In testimony whereof I sign this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES E. MYERS.

Witnesses:

E. S. WHEELER, I. G. HOWLETT. 

